It is a well known problem that bugs and insects tend to crawl into pet food and water dishes, eating and contaminating the food. This can cause wasted food and water and contamination that can lead to pet sickness. For example, in warm climates such as Florida, fire ants are both a nuisance and difficult problems for pets since fire ants cause painful bites.
Many types of pet food and water dishes have been proposed. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,191,811 to Trampier; 2,542,400 to Donofrio; 2,973,932 to Huis, et al.; 3,651,787 to Cooper; 4,573,434 to Gardner; 4,784,086 to Hand et al.; 5,209,184 to Sharkan et al.; ; 5,259,336 to Clark; 5,285,749 to Byer; and 5,488,927 to Lorenzana. However, none of these patents contain water obstacles to prevent the insects from crawling into the main area containing the food and water.
Other types of pet food dishes have been proposed that contain water moats to prevent insects from crawling into food. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 326,742 to Tart; Des. 342,353 to Anastasi; 395,490 to French; 2,191,811 to Trampier, Sr.; 2,554,086 to Block; 4,007,711 to Michael; 5,031,575 to Phillips; 5,113,798 to Rera; 5,165,365 to Thompson; 5,205,242 to Kasselman; 5,245,948 to McClellan; and 5,277,149 to East. However, these patents are generally restricted to a single thin strip of water surrounding a center water/food dish close to ground level. Insects can still swim and/or jump a short distance over the single thin water strip into the center water/food dish. Kasselman '948 has a food/water dish above the moat. However, the sides of the top food/water dish are close to the moat dish sides, which would allow larger insects to be able to travel the short separate distance.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,994,859 to Langum; 4,896,627 to Riddell; and 5,253,609 to Partelow et al. each describe double ring type moat devices. However, Langum '859 is used as a "Fly Poisoning Device", title, and uses a poisonous liquid to circulate downward from an internal container 18 to a moat 16, and is not capable of being used to provide water and food for pets. Riddell '627 describes an "ant proof pet dish", title, and uses dual moats. However, Riddell '627, uses the middle moat 14 as a water dish that is always open from above(FIG. 3) to additional insects and other contamination that can access it. Riddell '627 requires substantially different structural and nonsymmetrically arranged bottom, middle and top dishes(FIGS. 3-4) that would be difficult to transport, unsightly to display(does not appear as a pet food/water dishes) and requires excessive amounts of use space due to its' height and large bottom dish size. Partelow '609 describes a "pet dish", title, having an inner and outer moats 30, 20 FIG. 1. However, Partelow '609 requires through-holes 42, 50 that allow the same moat water to flow between the moats 20, 30 thus allowing water swimming insects to be able to traverse the moats as if only a single moat existed. Furthermore, the main support poles and sockets 21, 26, 52, 62, 66 FIG. 1, are circular pipe shaped and are rotatable, column 4, lines 4-7. The combination of the movable pipe shaped pedestals, and the rounded top shape 64 of the bottom pedestal makes the overall device in Partelow '609 shaky and not particularly sturdy. The rotatable sockets can easily be turned by the pet allowing the pet to access the inner moats containing insect contaminated water. Furthermore, the exterior shape of the Partelow '609 device does not resemble a normal pet food/water dish. Still furthermore, Langum '859, Riddell '627 and Partelow '609 would have assembled heights of up to one foot or more, and not fit into typical storage spaces under chairs, tables, cabinets and the like.